Human beings have a tendency to stick it out with costly decisions, and it can be attributed directly to the sunk cost fallacy. According to this psychological concept, the more we invest -- whether it be money, time, or emotions -- the less likely we are to abandon our initial choices. There are many examples of the sunk cost fallacy in action. For example, if you've invested $10,000 in a women's studies degree even though you recognize your job prospects following graduation are looking a tad bleak, you're likely to press on. Or, perhaps you've been waiting in the same line at the grocery store for nearly 10 minutes while others around you speed by. You've waited this long, so you refuse to budge. Or maybe you insist on getting through the final two chapters of the mediocre book you're reading, or wrapping up the last season of the show you've been watching for several years. After we commit, we tend to bind ourselves to our own decisions, an...

Ah, the famous (or infamous) grass is greener syndrome. We've all fallen prey to it at one point or another. In case you're not certain what it means: When one questions whether the grass is greener on the other side, they contemplate if there are better options out there for them. And, of course, one will never know if the grass is greener -- if circumstances will in fact be more favorable -- unless they take a particular course of action. So a certain element of risk is certainly involved. There are two primary areas where we are confronted with the grass is greener dilemma: jobs and relationships. 1. Jobs: Most of us do not detest our jobs per se, but from time to time, we wonder whether there is something better out there for us. Perhaps we have outgrown our current role and picture ourselves in a higher position, earning more money and receiving better benefits. Or maybe we envision working for a better boss, or at a bigger company, or in a different industry a...

Now, you might be asking what on earth I mean by "hopper." Fair question. To put it into proper context, I'm talking about someone who jumps from one thing to another without hesistation, i.e., a job hopper or relationship hopper. Unfortunately, the people I know who are prone to this sort of thing find themselves rather discontented. Their problem is that they fall victim to grass is greener syndrome. They struggle with commitment, convincing themselves that: If or when their relationship becomes less exciting/more routine, the easiest way to recapture the excitement of a new relationship is to jump into a new one.  If or when their job becomes too easy/routine, there's bound to be a better, more challenging one out there, leading them to jump ship at the first opportunity that presents itself. In other words, they view jobs and relationships much like trying out a new sweater. If they're unhappy following a "trial" period, they return...

Want to know the secret to keeping your life exciting? It's not much of a secret at all when you think about it. It's just that people are unwilling to invest the effort required. The secret to keeping your life lies in avoiding or breaking something that begins with an "r" and ends in an "e." Can you guess what that word is? If you said "routine," you're absolutely right. Nothing sucks the fun out of life quite like routine does. Granted, there are some routines we can't do away with -- reporting for work at 9 a.m. sharp, taking Suzy to ballet class every Saturday afternoon, vising the dentist every couple of months -- but there's no reason for your life to be scripted entirely. Feeling as though you're running on autopilot all the time is the surest way to feeling bored. Whatever routines we have should be interspersed with new experiences. Visit a new state or country. Take up a new hobby. Try out a restaurant you'v...

My wife and I have been together for 12-and-a-half years, of which over three have been as a married couple. I often reflect on the beginning of the relationship, which was surely a magical time. We were both juniors in college with ample butterflies in our stomachs. Our relationship came as something of a surprise, as we had met in the 6th grade and didn't see or speak to one another again until the year we hooked up -- which, by the way, came almost a decade later after reconnecting on MySpace! Now that we've been married and living together for several years, it's easy to see how different things are from the way they were when we got together. Aside from the obvious (e.g., you're not as embarrassed to fart in front of one another), you essentially become a team once you're married -- one that has far more important things to worry about than simply choosing what movie to watch or restaurant to dine at. From bills to helping the kids with homework, marri...

Life is too short to live on autopilot all the time . While some routine is good, too much of it can make us feel as though our lives are stuck in a holding pattern. The axiom "variety is the spice of life" isn't just some tired cliché. The more you continue to do things in exactly the same manner, the less you grow. Rather than being focused on the here and now -- and what the future will bring -- you're stuck in your old tried-and-true ways. In the long run, this will only breed discontentment and regret. Even little changes can make a considerable difference: Taking a slightly different route to and from work Trying out different restaurants  Checking out new events in town Going to the gym in the morning some days and in the evening on others Broadening your horizons by exploring new cities/countries Changing your look every so often (e.g., different haircut or wardrobe) Eating lunch at different times on different days Considering new job opportun...

Many of us often complain of our lives being boring and routine. Every day seems to be a carbon copy of the last. There just isn't anything exciting going on. You probe into why your life seems so mundane but can't seem to come up with a definitive answer. Well, I'm here to tell you what exactly causes you to to get in such a rut. Ready? More likely than not, the reason your life seems so vanilla is because you're not giving yourself enough things to look forward to. There's really nothing more exciting than anticipating and readying ourselves for an event or change. Just last night, my wife and I booked a flight to Boston. We plan to stay there for a week next month, and I couldn't be more ecstatic. I'm greatly looking forward to soaking up all the history the city has to offer. Among the items on my tentative itinerary are the Freedom Trail, Fenway Park, and Harvard. Honestly, I had been feeling that my life needed something of a boost of l...

There's a well-known adage that variety is the spice of life. This is far from a tired cliché; it's the truth. The only way to ensure that our lives don't get stuck in a repetitive rut is to keep them fresh and exciting. We do this by infusing them with new experiences. That can be anything from traveling the world to taking a different route to and from work each day. We are creatures of habit who tend to get stuck in our comfort zone, conditioning us to live each day in "rinse and repeat" fashion. While a little routine is to be expected, we shouldn't feel as if each day is a rehash of the prior one. If, at the end of the week, you can't remember a single thing that distinguished one day of that week from the other -- if the entire week seems like a big blur -- that's a telltale sign you may need to spruce things up a bit. And no one says injecting some spontaneity into your life has to be expensive. The key is to do a few little things ...

One question people often ask me is why time seems to go faster with age. They see themselves in their 40s and 50s and cannot believe how quickly the years have gone by. Perhaps you find yourself asking the same thing. Studies show that routine is to blame. The more repetitive things become, the less likely you are to stop and smell the roses, so to speak. You just take each day for granted in rinse and repeat fashion. That's precisely why we should aim to fill our lives with novel experiences. Whether it's exploring new destinations or trying out new foods, experiences that are unique and uncommon extricate us from the monotony of daily life and give us a fresh perspective. They make us think. They make us pause. When something is new and exciting, we engross ourselves in it, and we look forward to the next time we can partake in such an experience. Think about all the times we waited with bated breath for Christmas to roll around as children. Having to wait 12 months fo...

Know how they say that too much of something tends to be bad? Well, that applies to relationships in myriad ways. But the one I'd like to discuss in this post is spending too much time together. Many people think that the more time you spend with someone the better, and that spending time apart can seriously weaken a relationship. The truth of the matter is that either extreme isn't healthful. When you spend too much time together, you leave yourselves with little to talk about. Things become routine -- you find yourselves going to the same restaurants and conversing about the same things. Spending a lot of time together works at the beginning of a friendship or relationship because you're both getting to know each other. Everything seems new and exciting, and the hours just seem to fly by. But once the relationship has matured and you've grown accustomed to each other's quirks, spending too much time together can begin to be detrimental. The things tha...

Want to know one of the many things that makes people get bored of their jobs? Predictability . Not just in terms of the work itself, but the people who surround us in the workplace. I work with an older gentleman who is the epitome of routine. Let's call him Andy. I thought I was a creature of habit until I met this guy. I can tell you exactly how Andy goes about his day: He goes to the cafeteria to get coffee at 9 a.m., grabs his lunch at 11:30 a.m. and eats at his desk, goes on his actual break at 12:30 p.m., makes some more coffee at 3 p.m., eats an apple at 3:30 p.m., and then bolts out of the office at 5:30 p.m. sharp. He does this every day , without fail. What's worse, he makes a pastime out of hurling the same tired jokes over and over again. We spend more time with co-workers than we do friends and family. Is it any wonder we grow tired of seeing the same people 40+ hours a week? It'd be nice if we rotated cubicles every so often and got to know differen...

Ever wonder why we put such a high premium on television and music? It's not just about the entertainment value they deliver. Essentially, TV and music rescue us, if temporarily, from the humdrum of everyday life. We watch everything from reality shows to soap operas on television. These programs have no basis in reality -- and that's precisely why we gravitate to them. We like to immerse ourselves in love stories and action-packed adventures that break the monotony of real life -- annoying bosses, cubicle boredom, bickering with your inlaws, endless chores. Every episode of shows like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones leaves viewers hungry for more. It gives them something to look forward to. The feeling of being on the edge of your seat -- the unpredictable -- is a tremendous high. Movies with various installments -- Twilight, The Avengers, and Rocky are a few examples -- have the same effect on audiences. Further, music serves a similar purpose. Think about a ti...

As we get older, life can become rather routine and mundane. We all know this. We get up, eat breakfast, brush our teeth, get dressed, drive to work, spend eight or so hours in a cubicle, drive back home, eat dinner, watch TV, go to sleep, and do the same thing the next day. Rinse and repeat.  Lucky for us, there's at least one thing about which we're passionate, which makes life a whole lot more tolerable.  Passion gets us out of bed in the morning. It's like a great shot of adrenaline. It drives us to achieve something. It prompts us to push our limits.  As Oprah once said: "Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you." As I've noted in other posts, my passions lie in: Writing Reading Learning (especially about psychology and history) Animal welfare Helping the less fortunate Some of us are lucky enough to do what we're passionate about for a living. For example, you may love animals and wor...

When we fall into a routine, we can become overly complacent. This works well for some people, but not so much for others. Forward-looking and always in search of ways to liven up my career and marriage, I fall within the latter group. I accept routine up to a point, but eventually it begins to grate on me a bit. I like to feel as though I can look forward to something bigger and better. In the context of my marriage, this means doing new, spontaneous things with my wife -- say, visiting a particular destination for the first time, trying out different foods and restaurants, and partaking in new outdoor activities. Many people say that once the wedding and honeymoon are over with and people finally have to live like a married couple, it's not all peaches and cream. Well, I can attest to that. Marriages, just like relationships, take a lot of work. Once the novelty of a relationship wears off, people need to put in a considerable degree of effort to keep things fun and interes...

I certainly do. A feeling of "college nostalgia" has come over me of late, and I'm trying to figure out why. I graduated close to 8 years ago. The last 2 or 3 years have been quite eventful to say the least. I bought a new car, got married, traveled on a plane for the first time, and purchased a condo that my wife and I recently moved into.  If there's so much going on, why can't I help but reflect on my college years? I think most of us would agree that life was a whole lot simpler back when we were in college. Our main priority was studying to get good grades in hopes of landing a good job upon graduation.  That's not to say we didn't work while going to school (I worked part-time), but we probably didn't have as many bills to pay and, for most of us, marriage and children didn't pop up on our radar screen until after we received that diploma. Hence, having less responsibility was certainly a huge plus.  I miss the flexibi...

They say variety is the spice of life, but for some people, routine reigns supreme in their lives. Does variety necessarily mean that you have a better life than the next guy? Like everything else in life, what makes a good life is largely subjective. Some people thrive on spontaneity while others like eating the same foods and taking the same route home every day. Neither is necessarily better than the other. A bevy of factors account for these differing ways to live our lives, like genetics, upbringing, and personality. And it's entirely possible that you could prefer one style at one stage of your life and the other at a different juncture. I would venture to say that most people tend to like variety and spontaneity when they're younger and routine in their later years. I am a creature of habit and keep my day quite organized and structured. Know those people who like to prepare to do lists and write everything down in an agenda? That's me. That doesn't mean I ...